OUR READERS WRITE...

May 20, 2012

Second Harvest Food Bank board of directors and staff would like to congratulate the Mahoning Valley community for winning the Walmart "Fighting Hunger Together challenge" that generated $1 million for hunger relief in our community.

We are so very grateful to the community for taking the time each day to vote for the Mahoning Valley. People consistently called to let us know that they were voting and encouraging their friends, family and colleagues to do likewise.

Words cannot express the pride and gratitude we feel toward the wonderful, generous people that call the Mahoning Valley home, as well as people from across the country and around the world.

We are also extremely grateful to the media and especially WFMJ and the Vindicator for helping to amass the support received. Schools, universities, companies and civic organizations and individuals got involved and helped put the Mahoning Valley over the top. We should all feel so proud that we worked together to achieve this worthy goal.

The food bank received $715,000 from the Walmart Foundation that will be used to increase our capacity to distribute more food, as outlined in the foundation guidelines.

The food bank will hold an open house on Saturday, June 2 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and invite you to come by and hear about our plan to expand our capacity to feed more people right here in our community. The board of directors and staff will be privileged to shake as many hands as possible of those who worked so hard to make the Mahoning Valley #1 in the nation.

Thank you again for your support, not only during this challenge, but throughout the year, each and every day. We are humbled by your generosity and grateful beyond words. Know that your support means so much to the struggling families in the Mahoning Valley that rely on the Food Bank and its member agencies to provide food.

The board of directors, the food bank staff, volunteers and all of those affiliated with Second Harvest Food Bank feel privileged to serve the Mahoning Valley.

MIKE IBERIS,

Executive director,

Second Harvest Food Bank

Family grateful for support

To the editor:

To our wonderful community,

Words cannot express our gratitude for all of your calls, visits, prayers, donations and contributions during the passing of Bob Myers husband, father, grandfather and friend to so many. This has been a most difficult time for our family, but knowing that we have the love and support of so many relatives, friends and community members is uplifting.

Our family was certainly blessed with almost 40 wonderful years of marriage, four children and three grandchildren! Our hearts will never fully heal from this loss, but we are comforted knowing we have your support to help us through the difficult times ahead. We would especially like to thank the Hospice of the Valley for their expert care of Bob in his last days, our church family and Pastor Connie Sassanella for her support and spiritual guidance. We sincerely thank you all and are forever grateful for your kindness. We hope that Bob's memory lives on in those who knew him. God bless.

EDITH A. MYERS and family,

Salem

Nation bullied by nonelected bureaucrats

To the editor:

After two consecutive days of power outage it was discovered to be the work of a pair of suicidal squirrels. Undoubtedly members of PETA working in conjunction with other eco-terrorists and the Obama administration. Closing down power plants, disrupting power distribution and destroying the coal industry to save the planet, to save America from itself.

There is a local news story about the city of Brownsville, Pa., that just 40 years ago was a thriving coal mining community but is now a ghost town. Obama promised to end coal as an industry and undoubtedly all of West Virginia and Ohio will suffer the same fate as Brownsville. Our nation is being "bullied" by nonelected bureaucrats that have the full force and power of the federal government behind them. It is elected officials like Senator Sherrod (no budget) Brown, Democrat that support these liberal methods of economic command and control. Don't be surprised if Senator Brown comes by and pays respect to the little martyrs ... nuts!

WILLIAM E. EARDLEY,

East Liverpool

Has issue with Salem Community Hospital

To the editor:

Instead of the Salem Hospital spending $42.5 million on a new room tower why don't they update the rooms they already have? My father was on the third floor and you could not walk down the hall without stepping around carts, laundry bins, etc. sitting in the halls. Two beds to a room and one television, come on get real.